You Said

We Did

• We have worked to ensure we have parent reps on our SEND work streams groups.
• We have monthly meetings with our Newham parent forum (NPF) with representatives from the Council and NHS.
• We will be investing more in the NPF to support them with capacity and being able to have greater influence on decision making
• We will set up a young commissioner’s programme to hear more from young people and enable them to influence decisions
• We will develop training with and for parent/carers on commissioning so they feel better equipped to shape decisions.
• Involvement in the recruitment of senior local authority appointments.
• Co-production work on developing a refreshed local offer website. We have developed a MOU which lays out the ways in which we will work together.
• Co-produced tools such as a feedback form and surveys.

• We have secured an additional £2.3 million per year for therapy services in Newham, for two years.
• This means we will have an additional 19 speech and language therapists (SLT) and an additional 9.5 occupational therapists (OT).
• This includes roles focused on: Eating, drinking and swallowing in SLT and OT
• Autism in SLT
• Sensory needs in OT
• Early years and schools support in SLT and OT – to reduce waiting times and ensure we are delivering timely therapy assessments for EHCPs
• We have recruited to all our new OT roles and the majority of our SLT roles.
• We have also developed training programmes for newly qualified staff in SLT that has helped us attract staff to Newham.
• We have also set up working groups for SLT and OT and are very grateful to the NPF in supporting us to have parent/carers members on these groups.
• A local parent shared their experience of “Connect with me” at our SLT group. This is a programme supporting children with language delay. SEND leaders have visited the programme and we are now looking at how we can offer more of these programmes in Newham.
• We have also set up working groups for SLT and OT and are very grateful to the NPF in supporting us to have parent/carers members on these groups.
• A local parent shared their experience of “Connect with me” at our SLT group. This is a programme supporting children with language delay. SEND leaders have visited the programme and we are now looking at how we can offer more of these programmes in Newham.
• We are working to develop a clear speech and language therapy offer that supports children at all levels of need, age 0-25.
• We are mapping out all the OT services for children and young people age 0- 25 so we have a clear offer and can identify gaps in support.

Our investment and recruitment mean we will have shorter waiting times and be able to support more children in Newham, including those with specific needs such as sensory or swallowing needs. Our staff development programme means we have been able to recruit SLT’s. This is really important as there is a national shortage of SLTs. It will help us to develop our staff to be high quality and should help us in keeping our staff in Newham. Listening to parents means we are looking at how we can deliver more programmes like “Connect with me” to reach more children and families. We will be able to advertise a clear therapy offer on the Local Offer website